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Anastasia Balezdrova

The Greek team at the Olympic Games in London will be an athlete less, after the participation of athlete Dimitris Hondrokoukis was annulled. The synthetic anabolic steroid Stanozolol was found in his first sample for doping control.

So far, the Greek Athletics Federation has not officially confirmed this information. The father and coach of the highjumper, however, hurried to announce that his son will not take part in the Olympics, which will start tomorrow.

Kiriakos Hondrokoukis indicated that the athlete has no intention of challenging the doping control results, although he defined them as "unreal." He also resigned from the position of technical adviser on development issues in the Federation of Athletics.

The anabolic steroid, found in the body of Dimitris Hondrokoukis, is used for medicines intended for treatment of horses. The substance was also found in Ben Johnson's positive doping test control 20 years ago.

Meanwhile, Greek society is still being shaken by the reactions Voula Papahristou caused with her publication of in the social network Twitter, and as a result of which the athlete was excluded from participation in the Olympics. GRReporter contacted for comment Akis Sakisloglou, a sports journalist who, in his comments today, challenged the decision of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, without justifying its behaviour.

"I am against the way Voula Papahristou was punished. It is not possible for the Olympic Committee to react so quickly and to deprive her of participation in the games. Logically a commission should have been established to hear the athlete first, and then to determine the punishment. Yesterday's reaction was the result of political pressure and the desire to show a different image abroad. It is simply not fair to the athlete.

On the other hand, I think that what she did is very serious and that she has already realized it. People, who represent the country at the Olympic Games, cannot speak this way. She should be aware that she is famous now and that she is an example for many people, and that she should avoid making such comments. The purpose of the punishment, however, cannot be the destruction of a career, but for she herself and others to understand that her act was inappropriate. I'm not at all sure Voula Papahristou will understand it this way."

The sports journalist pointed out that the wild debate and the categorical way the triple jumper was punished, are adding fuel to the flames of the extreme right. Indeed, Golden Dawn was quick to issue an angry message, claiming that "the only racism is the racism in Greece against the Greeks."

"My personal opinion is that the athlete should have been allowed to take part in the Olympics and after her return to receive a severe punishment, such as, for example, prohibition to participate in sporting events for one or two years. Ultimately, the Olympic Committee in what capacity prohibited her from participating? She does not owe her qualification to anything else other than intensive training and the results she has shown. In this sense, the punishment is very unfair."

In a rather ostensible manner, the journalist criticized the position of the Olympic Committee, which didn't show similar accuracy to athletes, who have ruined sports spirit by taking doping substances.

"If the athlete had said that it wasn't she, who wrote this comment, but a friend of hers, who deals with her profiles on the social networks because she has no time due to training, what would have been the difference? Would they have justified her, as they did with Kostas Kenderis and Katerina Tanou, who said they had had a car accident and nobody even tried to oppose them. As a result, their doping control tests before the games in Athens in 2004 never took place."

According to him, in the case of Voula Papahristou, Greek sporting management have not respected her sincerity and the fact that she had confessed and apologized.

Four cases of doping since the beginning of the year

Dimitris Hondrokoukis is the fourth Greek athlete who was found to have taken banned substances. On 13 June the Athletics Federation announced that doping has been found in the sample of javelin champion Gervasios Filippidis.

Several days later during the National Athletics Championship doping control authorities found doping in the sample of 400 meters sprinter Tilemachos Routas. According to the Federation, his sample was the only positive one among the 25 tested during the tournament.

With a nine-month delay, anabolic steroids were also found in the sample of athlete Irini Kokinariou, who was punished by the World Federation with a two-year ban on competing. She was one of the nine athletes, in whose samples banned substances were found during the re-check of samples taken in September 2011 during the World Athletics Championship in South Korea.